This is like having someone try to explain what a database is in layman's terms, and then having a member of the audience who has written one HTML webpage deman

This is like having someone try to explain what a database is in layman's terms, and then having a member of the audience who has written one HTML webpage demand code. They simply do not even have the basic blocks needed to comprehend databse code down: variables, types etc. You cannot teach them that in any acceptable length of time. Just showing code and pointing at various parts: "this does x", "this other thing does y" is no more useful than using abstract art: the subtle syntax and semantics you are so accustomed to interpreting that you do not even notice it (array subscripts, point dereferences, etc.), they cannot even realize is there. This is why science educators don't show the math. They're not talking down because they want to, but for the same reason you can't explain object relational impedance mismatch to a 7 year old.